


Cancelling the Apocalypse

by Elexica



Series: Elexica does AU-gust 2020 [5]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: AU-gust 2020, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Drift Bond, Drift Compatibility, Kaiba Seto Has Issues, M/M, Pre-Slash, extra bs science for kaiba, for nowwwww, is there a dubcon but only for drifting?, ygocollablove
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25741093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elexica/pseuds/Elexica
Summary: Are Joey and Kaiba drift compatible?
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Series: Elexica does AU-gust 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860052
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26
Collections: AUgust 2020





	Cancelling the Apocalypse

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Here There Be Dragons](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17105438) by [toffeecape](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toffeecape/pseuds/toffeecape). 



> Thanks to that blessed server YGOCollabLove. Shout outs to Cleopatra and Life-or-Death, who were somewhat forced to beta read this. 
> 
> For Post-Apocalyptic AU prompt aka Day 5 of AU-Gust. 
> 
> Inspired in part by Toffeecape's crossover which is gorgeous.

Joey could live forever in the moment when his Jaeger sprung to life. That second, when it turned from a metal coffin, stuffed with circulating air in his helmet and bound up with all those restraints, into an extension of himself and his sister, a glowing powerful beast and a force of nature to reckon with the monstrous Kaiju themselves, was heaven. 

He was addicted to that moment of life, awareness, connection, and strength.

He felt invincible.

There were many other moments in the Jaegar that almost overshadowed that incredible experience. Getting smacked around by Kaiju was never fun. It isn’t in the recruitment flyers, but you have sympathetic pains with your Jaeger as it endures the beating. The lack of gravity after a particularly brutal blow is also nauseating and terrifying. 

But the worst was the last time: the feeling of falling, as the power cut in and out, limbs crashing, the machine out of control, unable to even sense if his sister’s life force was present… the crunch of metal, and the sensation of searing…

His skin was so mottled from the thrashing he was practically one big bruise, and his ankle was badly sprained. He tried hard not to limp, not needing to look any more pathetic.

His sister survived, but Serenity had fared much worse. When Joey’s eyes had clamped shut at the explosion erupting from the Kaiju, his sister’s had remained open, searching for the Shatterdome on the horizon. She had guided them to safety at what would be great personal cost.

The alarm signaling another event went off that later night, mere hours after the emergence that had almost cost Sword Hunter. Joey had begged for them to let him back out, to fight the next Kaiju, and the one after that too. All of them. Anything the breach could throw at them.

Dark Magician had dispatched the trouble at the breach instead, and it had returned in good condition before the sun was up again.

No one believed Joey when he said he was ready to get back in the Jaeger immediately, chalking it up to some deliria from the mental strain of the accident.

Well, almost no one.

He was shocked that Kaiba would make an appearance in the hospital wing of the Shatterdome. The man was all long limbs and disdain from on high. 

“What are you still doing here?” Kaiba asked, as if he had come to evict Joey from the room.

Joey wasn’t keen to admit it, but he’d been spending every night in the chair next to Serenity’s bed. Three days later, Serenity still hadn’t woken up. The bandages over her eyes haunted Joey.

Joey had been told to go back to the Pilot’s dorm the first night. After another night had passed, Yugi and Atem had begged him to return with them, to get some actual rest. 

They were really scraping the bottom of the barrel if they were dragging Kaiba into this.

“I’m keeping an eye on her.” Joey said quietly. He eyed the man looming in the doorway with skepticism. “What’d you want?”

“It appears that a spot has opened up in your Jaeger.” Kaiba said.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think Sword Hunter’s goin’ anywhere too soon anyway.”

Kaiba scoffed. “Wrong. Your sister preserved her well. The Jaeger is shockingly salvageable.”

“Hey! I was in there too!!” Joey shot back.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah!”

“Pilots who’ve been in a Jaeger accident are required to report to the dorms until a determination as to the cause of the crash is officially determined. That’s from the Pilot rulebook, chapter six, subsection eight.” Kaiba stated.

“Oh come on!”

Kaiba walked over to Joey’s chair. “We’ll walk back the long way. You should see what I’ve got going on with the Jaeger.” 

“I swear if ya ruined with my damn Jaeger, Kaiba—”

“I designed it. I built it. And I will make any and all improvements that I see fit.” Kaiba answered. “If you intend to protest the updates, you should at least see them.”

Joey cast another look towards Serenity. True to her name, she was resting peacefully in an induced coma. He really wouldn’t be gone long, and he longed to see what Kaiba had been working on.

Joey had lost track of time during his vigil in the hospital room. The corridors were creepily empty. It left the Shatterdome feeling even more hauntingly industrial than it did during the day.

The awkward silence was palpable. Joey was running on adrenaline, simultaneously obsessed with seeing the machine again and childishly scared of stepping back in.

“The only person I’ve tested drift compatible with is Mokuba.” Kaiba blurted. If Joey didn’t know better, it would have seemed as though Kaiba was attempting to make small talk.

Joey heard liquid rush through piping along the hallway, and his eyes darted at the noise. “That’s great, Kaiba.”

“Of course, he wanted to pilot a Jaeger with me.” Kaiba continued, clearly not requiring Joey’s input.

Joey looked down at his feet. The last seventy-two hours threatened to catch up with him, and he quickened his pace.

“But the risk. He’s too young.” Kaiba said. “It was not a reflection on my skills as a pilot.”

Joey focused back in on the conversation Kaiba was having, perhaps unwittingly, with himself. “Weren’t ya bounced cause you failed the psych exam, like, catastrophically.”

Kaiba scoffed, but his mouth twisted into a tight frown. “They removed the psychological screening requirement last month. Desperate times, Joey.”

They arrived in the Jaeger bay.

Joey fell to his knees at the sight of his baby cut up and exposed like that, bent and burnt plating with wires streaming out like exposed innards. Kaiba had absolutely no reaction, moving to the Jaeger and observing one diagnostic read-out. 

His nimble fingers tapped away at the interface before looking back at Joey.

“Get up. You should see this.”

Joey struggled back to his feet and made his way over, busted ankle screaming at him. Kaiba was standing near the helmet of the Jaeger. Joey had never entered the control room this way, as if it was an elevated gazebo at a park instead of a giant fighting robot. But Kaiba had obviously spent hundreds of hours with the equipment in every which form. Entering through one Jeffrey’s tube or another construction door appeared to mean nothing to him. Joey found that it was easier to go back into the machine this way. His stomach still lurched as the familiar smell of the control room hit him, now tinged with the stink of burnt flesh. He tried not to remember who’s.

Joey gasped when he followed Kaiba through the metal porthole.

The control room he had known for years was all but gone. The only trace that remained was the mismatch in the hue of the metal—some shiny light grey had been patched onto seared charcoal colored material. There were still burn marks from the incident. 

While Kaiba had taken little care in fixing the plating for aesthetics, the rest of the room was completely different. For one thing, the entire space was bathed in blue light. The suits, the harnesses, the controls, were all gutted. 

Kaiba affixed a small headset to his right ear. The little grey metal wrapped around, ending just above his eyebrow in the front and resting at the nape of his neck in the back. With another tap, a blue light illuminated. And his mouth melted into a satisfied smile.

“Joey.” Kaiba said, interrupting the spellbound staring Joey had been doing. He threw Joey a matching headset. “This is going to revolutionize drifting.”

“Where’d everything go?” Joey asked. He sounded very scared. He did not apply the headset to his forehead, and the cold tech rested heavy in his bruised palms. 

“New project I’ve been toying with. The Kaiju are too big for us to defeat, reliably, on an even playing field.” Kaiba walked to the entry point and sealed it. He then began to fiddle with a freshly-installed panel on the wall. Joey didn’t recognize it. “So we need to be able to change their specific gravity. I have been working on an anti-weapon which lead me to this.” With a final keystroke, the smile widened further, now appearing fully maniacal. “An anti-gravity chamber.” Kaiba pushed off of the ground with a slight bend of his left knee.

Joey took a deep breath and mimicked him. He put a little too much force into it and bounced off the ceiling before careening into Kaiba.

“Put the device on. It will help you acclimate to the gravity.”

Joey was surprised that the same device fit both their heads. The metal was cold on his forehead, and unnecessarily sharp at the nape of the neck. Leave it to Seto Kaiba to design a wearable so supremely uncomfortable.

With a tap and a blink, Joey found that he could see blue lines and numbers showing him where he was going, and with how much force. 

Once he had steadied properly, he could take stock of his body. Every single muscle was tensed, as if he was worried that the gravity would give out, and he would be dropped unceremoniously on the floor. From the sharp pain he felt in his ankle, the tension was not serving him. With a few deep breaths, he was able to school his body into relaxing. One muscle at a time, starting at his toes, he released the stress. The throbbing in his ankle had even stopped.

Floating for an extended period felt nice. It reminded him of being in the pool, as a child. When all of the other kids were distracted and he had a moment to himself to just float. His arms and legs stretched out like a starfish, the late-afternoon sun warming his skin, but not scorching it. The cool water lapping at his back and sides, his ears just dipping under the surface. He couldn’t hear anything but the undulations of the water.

Silence.

Peace.

And rather suddenly, rage.

The neural handshake was established, and he could feel the weight of Kaiba’s consciousness. The other man trying to hard to suppress pure giddiness and instead focus on keeping the machine still.

Joey remembered his training. If he freaked out or flinched, the rest of the Jaeger might move too. He didn’t even know which hemisphere he was piloting. 

Plus, what he did know about Kaiba was that he did not want to sink too deep into the other man’s head if at all possible. Joey was far too experienced to chase a RABIT. He tried to hold onto the peace. 

It depended on whether Kaiba still had it the control room hooked up to the rest of the Jaeger. It was only experimental material, right? Kaiba was just testing. Sword Hunter had only been in the bay for three days, after all. Kaiba wouldn’t put lives at risk with some Zombie-Jaeger.

 _Or would he_ , Joey thought, _it is Kaiba. He’s equal parts brilliant and insane._

“YES.” Kaiba’s voice rang clear over the neural handshake. The excitement was almost as unbearable as the heat that radiated through the connection.

“Kaiba, please, turn it off. You have no idea what yer doing.” Joey kept his tone measured, even though the contact with Kaiba’s mind made Joey feel like his brain was boiling in his skull.

Kaiba tapped the headset, and the link was released. Joey let out a breath of relief, and noted that all of his muscles had tensed again. He tore off the offending headset. 

Joey prayed that the Jaeger had not been connected. He did not want to know what those mental limbs could do to the hangar bay. He couldn’t bear the guilt if someone got hurt because I couldn’t control the Jaeger.

Once the link was released, Joey repositioned himself with his feet on the ground. Kaiba floated to the control panel and disengaged the anti-gravity.

The regular weight of Joey’s body suddenly bore down on his hurt ankle, and he couldn’t keep himself from swearing.

Kaiba rushed over, something in his eyes notably different, as if he had just discovered that he was a human being, just like Joey.

“No, you _stay back_.” Joey shouted. “I can’t believe you made me drift. I thought… I’m hurt. I’m fucking traumatized. And you!!” Joey was becoming too angry for words.

“This was my only chance. Now, you might be able to drift with me. And you _did_ , so I was right.” Kaiba looked serious and free of remorse. Joey didn’t think he was getting through to him, except his “I was right” sounded less prideful than usual. 

“And I couldn’t drift with you otherwise?”

“No one can.” Kaiba walked over to the portal and tapped away at the panel until it released with a pneumatic whoosh.

“News flash, rich boy! We never tried!” Joey shouted, limping over. “You have no idea! So instead of just _asking_ like a reasonable _person_ , you go and do…. AGH! What am I supposed to do with you?! I’m going back to the hospital.”

Joey jammed the headset into Kaiba’s hand and shoved past him. With his back turned, Joey knew Kaiba couldn’t see his wince as he jumped off the platform a little harder than he should have.

“Wait.” Kaiba finally said, after Joey had gotten halfway across the hanger.

Joey looked back, eyes furious.

“You’d be out of compliance. We have to go back to the dorms. I’ll walk you there.”

“I’ll find my way on my own.” Joey returned his focus forward, and continued to limp.

Suddenly, strong arms encircled his calves and stomach. He was unceremoniously lifted into Kaiba’s arms bridal style.

“I don’t trust you.” Kaiba said. “And it’s uncomfortable to see you walk like that.”

Joey wanted to throw a fit, but he was exhausted from the parade of painful experiences that he had weathered the last 72 hours.

. . .

It felt nice to wake up in his own bed, even though he didn’t remember arriving at the dorms.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes this story needs to continue. I have two more chapters planned. 
> 
> ....the boys will kiss in zero gravity.


End file.
